Within the first week, TSOFT was able to raise $8,253 through their outreach efforts, which was matched by an anonymous donor to amount to a total of $16,506.

Echoing Uzelli, Devletsah agreed that for many TSOFT members, it seemed to have taken one night for the shock to sink in, then transform into action upon the realization that people in Turkey and Syria who were displaced or trapped under the rubble needed urgent help. The first earthquake occurred in the evening for students at Tufts. However, TSOFT has gone to great lengths to do whatever they can to help from the Tufts campus. “I quickly noticed that … feeling sad or anxious or guilty about this wasn't helping the situation, I needed to remove myself emotionally from what had happened and realize, okay, this is what I can do to help, there isn't much I can do from … so far away.” “Seeing all of these social media posts … videos, news, there was just this constant flow of information, and that tends to lead to, at least for me, a lot of doom scrolling,” Devletsah said. “I don’t think I could fully grasp the magnitude of destruction until the next morning.”ĭevletsah added that she felt a bit paralyzed by the gravity of the situation. … We have a lot of earthquakes in Turkey, so it’s not uncommon.” Uzelli said. “ we wanted to … encapsulate that idea of the diversity that we have, and the inclusivity that we can have as an organization.”Įlif Uzelli, a first-year student and member of TSOFT, described how she initially reacted when news of the first earthquake broke. And we’re, in a way, a melting pot of a country, people of different ethnicities and backgrounds,” Devletsah said. “Not everyone who is from Turkey is ethnically Turkish.

“So to start off the semester with something so tragic and so devastating, and ask people to mobilize and do that quickly was a little bit difficult.”ĭevletsah also elaborated on the nomenclature of Tufts Students of Turkey, which was designed intentionally to open the club to a broader range of students that identify with Turkey in some form or another. So we like to come together a lot and have bondings, … and we hadn't really had the opportunity to do that this semester yet,” Devletsah said. “We’re friends first, before we’re a student organization. Eda Devletsah, a senior and co-president of TSOFT, acknowledged how the earthquakes have severely shifted the priorities of the group. Another 6.3 magnitude earthquake occurred in southern Turkey on February 20.Īccording to its members, TSOFT is a vibrant and tightly knit student club, known to the broader Tufts community for its Turkish coffee and backgammon events. In the two weeks after a disastrous 7.8 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tremors struck parts of Turkey and Syria, TSOFT has acted quickly to contribute to the relief effort while supporting themselves and each other through the difficult news. Even in light of dark events, we sometimes find beautiful examples of unity, as has been displayed by the Tufts Students of Turkey. When tragedy strikes, there are no expectations on how we are supposed to proceed.

Aftermath meaning earthquake today